Murder trial against Yassin Moyo begins four years after fatal shooting

On Tuesday, the hearing finally began at the High Court in Nairobi in the murder trial of police officer Dancun Ndiema, who is accused of killing Yassin Moyo in 2020.

The trial began more than four years after Yassin was shot dead from her balcony in Mathare on March 30, 2020.

Ake Hassan was the first of the 19 state witnesses to take the stand. She told the court that she was on the balcony with Yassin, his mother Hadija Hussein and their children when the boy was shot.

Hassan is a neighbour of the Moyos and lives in the same building in Kiamaiko in Huruma, Nairobi. The area is in the Kiamaiko ward of Mathare constituency.

Hassan told the court that she was a housewife.

The apartment has two floors. The upper floor was not yet occupied at the time. On the first floor is Hussein Moyo's house. Hussein is Yassin's father.

It is on the first floor balcony where Hassan was standing with Yassin, Yassin's mother and Hassan's two children when they saw the police officers.

“I could tell they were police officers because some of them were wearing police uniforms. One of them was pointing something like a flashlight that was emitting a green light at us on the balcony,” Hassan told trial judge Lillian Mutende.

She said the officer who had aimed at her then walked away from the group and shortly afterward they heard a gunshot.

“We all fell to the ground and I heard Yassin say, 'Mom, I got hit,'” the witness said.

The whole time, the accused Ndiema sat in the dock and stared thoughtfully at the witness while she gave her testimony.

Prosecutor Sarah Ogweno asked Hassan if the police officer who shot her was the accused in the dock.

“I can't say because it was evening and dusk had set in. The officer wasn't very close to us either,” she said.

However, defence lawyer Danstan Omari accused Hassan of not telling the court the whole truth. Omari claimed that there was chaos outside and that police officers were involved in a shootout with thugs in the area.

At first, Hassan said they were in the house and Yassin told them there was noise outside.

“I submit that several shots were fired before Yassin was shot. The police were shooting at thugs and anyone seen on the balcony at that time could have been mistakenly considered a threat to the officers' safety,” Omari said.

However, Hassan denied this claim and insisted that there was only one shot and the next thing they saw was a wound and blood from Yassin, who then fell down.

Four witnesses were scheduled to testify on Monday, but due to the busy trial schedule, which took up much of the judge's time, only Hassan was able to give evidence.

It seemed as if the case would be adjourned again as Judge Mutende had to attend a judges’ meeting first and her court therefore did not begin hearing the case until around noon.

Since there was a deadline for more than 20 points, the hearing began at around 4 p.m. and lasted until 5:50 p.m.

At this point, the judge asked the other witnesses to be patient, as the court could not continue to sit beyond this time.